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Ron Stephens tweaks plan to add video games to Georgia lottery

Hoping to overcome Gov. Nathan Deal’s objections, state Rep. Ron Stephens is tweaking his plan to add video games to Georgia’s lottery.

The Savannah Republican’s goal: A politically acceptable way to bail out the state’s ever-more-financially strapped HOPE scholarship program.

His new wrinkle is to let the state allow lottery video games in communities where the governing bodies seek them.

For almost two decades, the lottery has funded the scholarships and a statewide Pre-K program, but revenues haven’t kept up with demand.

State officials who divvy up scholarship money have said that, by 2016, there will be enough revenue to cover only about half of tuition costs.

Democrats want to means-test HOPE benefits or ration them, but neither idea is likely to find favor in the Republican-dominated legislature.

Meanwhile, Stephens has proposed to expand the lottery to let it be played on video terminals in tourist-serving areas, possibly including Savannah. Some Democrats support the idea.

He cites a 2011 study for the Georgia Lottery Corp. that estimated video lottery could rake in more than $1 billion a year in new revenue.

“That’s more than enough to take care of HOPE,” said Stephens, chairman of the House Economic Development & Tourism Committee.

Lottery officials already have the authority to approve the use of video terminals.

But Lottery Corporation President Margaret DeFrancisco recently said her board needs direction from the legislature on such a sensitive issue.

Stephens earlier had proposed offering a resolution urging the corporation to use its authority to expand the lottery to include use of video terminals.

But he said this week that his resolution, due to be introduced in the next few days, would urge the corporation to permit video lottery gaming only in communities that ask for it. Elected governing bodies would have to do so by passing resolutions, he said.

Many likely would do so, he said, because the rules he envisions would let them keep 1 percent of the proceeds.

He acknowledged one reason to peg expansion of the lottery to community requests is to overcome Deal’s objections. Deal has often said he opposes creating new venues to gamble, mostly because of the atmosphere he says gaming fosters in a community.

He lacks the authority to veto a resolution, which is merely an expression of legislative intent, not a proposed law.

But the governor appoints the corporation board and likely has at least some influence over the panel.

Stephens said pegging the proposal to local requests might soften Deal’s opposition.

“We’re making the issue local control, not whether there should be more gambling,” he said.

He noted Deal opposed Sunday sales of alcohol but last year signed a bill that let voters in local communities decide whether to allow it. The measures passed in many jurisdictions around the state, including seven in Chatham County.